No matter what the sport every game at the elite level feels like an examination.
Hundreds, if not thousands, are going to mark the performances of players and coaches to judge whether they make the grade.
Exams aren’t always passed, not all questions are answered correctly. In such circumstances candidates are encouraged to show their working out so that there is evidence of learning, that they are on the right track.
That is where Northern Ireland are now at. Tanya Oxtoby’s team struggled to find answers to the big questions asked in twin defeats to Norway and Friday night’s 2-0 loss to Poland.
Showing evidence of learning when they take on Bosnia & Herzegovina at Inver Park this evening — an easier opponent on paper and backed up by the evidence of two wins over them in last year’s Euro qualifiers — is a must for a squad that has evolved quickly over the last year.
With a number of players who were big performers on the way to the Women’s Euro 2022 Finals now replaced by exciting youngsters, like Keri Halliday and the latest senior international 18-year-old Kascie Weir and the slightly older batch of Nat Johnson, Brenna McPartlan and Connie Scofield coming on board.
“We are under no illusions that we are very much in a developing phase of getting youth to come up and to gain aspect of experience,” said captain Simone Magill, who straddles the eras.
“They will have learned so much from Friday night, but I think it’s a case of now that we don’t want to just fall into a trap of constantly learning and learning and not applying so I think for us now it is about now trying to put that into practice and this gives us a fantastic opportunity for us to take what we did learn on Friday, put that into practice and that is fully our focus now.”
Northern Ireland captain Simone Magill with rising star Keri Halliday
The overriding emotion of Oxtoby and her players after losing Friday’s opening Nations League game 2-0 in Gdansk was of one that got away.
The Poles struck twice in three minutes during the first half to win the game and while goalkeeper Kinga Szemik wasn’t really worked in the 70 minutes after that second goal Northern Ireland did cause problems for the Polish defence, in particular when Rebecca McKenna almost set up Magill and
Lauren Wade was only blocked off by last-gasp defending after pressure from Caragh Hamilton created the opportunity.
Strong second-half displays after struggling to get out of the blocks at the start is a recurring theme under Oxtoby’s management and learning to turn that around is a driver for Magill.
“It’s trying to start games positively and not concede early goals,” said the Birmingham City Women striker.
“In the last few games it’s been a bit of a similar thread that in the second half our performance is a lot better than how we initially started it and by that time in the game it’s almost been too late for us to get anything from it.
“Our biggest takeaways have been in relation to that. We are under no illusion that the top teams are going to have more of the ball than us so it’s looking at what we are doing out of possession and how can we give ourselves the best opportunity to actually get something from the game, I think that’s where we have fallen short in those game, especially more-so on Friday night.
“We saw it as a really good opportunity to try to get something away from home in arguably our toughest fixture in this campaign so I think when we talk about what we are learning it’s really in regards to that.
“We want to make sure that we are giving ourselves the best chance without the ball to actually get something from the game so that when we have the ball we can make something happen.”
It is anticipated that any changes Oxtoby might make will be in the attacking areas, with Danielle Maxwell and Emily Wilson in the frame to come into the team. Wilson was a late substitute against Poland.